Wikis

As I read this scenario, I was able to observe different problems that the teacher failed to address and made her use of technology harder than what it really is. When using technology, it is very important that one as a teacher is very specific as to what the expectations are of the assignments because students in the classroom now in days are very knowledgeable as to what the features each technology devise carries and what can be done with it. I believe that the main issue that Jane did was that she might’ve introduced the wikis to the students and had them create a group project. Taken that this is a 6^th grade classroom, I believe that Jane should set a rubric as to what cyber group work looks like in the technology world in order to have the students understand the expectations that they need to meet. I personally believe this is a crucial year that students need to know about cyber bullying and cyber safety because they are in the beginning of their middle school years and they need to understand the importance of keeping their manners outside and inside the technology devices. Another mistake that I saw that Jane made was that she did not give the students a rubric as to what each member of the group was responsible for. If she would’ve clarified that specifically before having the students go into the wikis, then the roles of each student would not overlap and the conflict between the team members would be reduced. Assigning each member of the team a specific assignment and role within the research in a wiki will help a lot because even though the students are going to be able to change the text the other students post, they each will have a part and won’t have to mess with their parts of the project. The third problem I noticed in this scenario is that the teacher did not teach them or gave them a rubric as to what netiquette was and what she expected of the interactions within the web. Adding a part of plagiarism and where they receive the information for their projects is very important because it is against school and federal policy to copy other people’s work and call it “your own.” As I had suggested previously to Jane, allowing students to take responsibility for a specific part of the project and that way reducing the lacking of participation of some students in the groups as well as having some students start erasing their peers input because it will become their grade as well.  In the link http://www.techforteachers.net/wikis-in-the-classroom.html, they give examples of roles that can be assigned to each student in each team. There is another website as to where the teacher is able to see the different projects that can be created through wikis and how to assign them step by step. It is crucial that the teacher is able to identify all the steps that need to be covered before allowing students to use technology. The website https://www.wikispaces.com/content/classroom also shows you the features of wikis and explains what the students can do and cannot do. By knowing what students are capable of doing with technology, then teachers can plan ahead and find a way to reduce the misbehaviors before it even starts.

Resources

http://www.techforteachers.net/wikis-in-the-classroom.html

https://elearningindustry.com/how-to-use-wiki-in-the-classroom

https://www.wikispaces.com/content/classroom